[modeleng] St Agnes
- From: "alanjstepney" <alan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <modeleng@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 24 Aug 2004 10:04:36 +0100
A week of rain and torrential downpour on Friday morning turned much of the
site into a quagmire, as can be seen from the photos.
Unfortunately, this meant that a many the exhibitors failed to appear.
Many of the low-loaders couldn't get on-site, and the reasons for the
non-appearance of their exhibits was understandable. However, I feel that
more of the exhibitors could have made an appearance, if they had tried. To
have only 20 or so out of 200 cars didn't make for a good display. Even some
of the military vehicles failed to show, and they would have been an ideal
vehicle in those conditions, so the owners cannot claim mud as a valid
excuse not to appear.
Fortunately, for me, most of the owners of the "miniatures", are made of
sterner stuff and were there."Miniatures" is how they were categorised, but
that is hardly appropriate to some engines, which were almost as large as
the full-size ones.
I left home at 4 a.m. and had an excellent run for the 180 miles to St
Agnes. Perhaps too good a run, as I got caught by a speed camera en route.!
The rain started just after dawn, and I arrived at the St Agnes in a heavy
downpour.
Roger Mason lives in St Agnes, and I went to his house, where we adjourned
for the important things, such as drinking coffee whilst discussing model
engineering, and looking round his workshop (I wish mine was as tidy as
that).
Although the rally was scheduled to open at 9 a.m, we waited and watched the
rain, until shortly before lunch time when it stopped and we made our way to
the rally site.
The site entrance, and for 200 yards beyond, was a maze of ruts deeply cut
into a sea of mud. I gather they were having to haul cars into, as well as
out of, the car park, although both Roger and I managed to negotiate this
hazard.
In spite of the conditions, it was an interesting show. Although there were
few exhibits in some categories, others were fairly fully represented.
I have mentioned "vintage and collectors cars", and the "motorcycles" class
was also almost bare. Of the "full size steam vehicles" about half were
unable to appear. The two classes that were almost at the expected numbers
were "tractors" (hardly surprising as they were in their element), and, as
mentioned, the "miniatures".
There were a lot of trade stands, the craft tent was full to capacity,
stationary engines seemed fairly well represented, and there were also many
other exhibits. I cannot comment on these as I spent most of my time with
the models and steam exhibits.
The quality of some, indeed, most, of the models was superb. A few had
paintwork that equalled the best I have seen at major exhibitions.
The exhibitor who had come the farthest was A. G. Bos, from the Netherlands,
who exhibited his 2" Fowler with load, and a couple of stationary engines.
There were four, perhaps five, models of the Alfred Dodman single crank
compound. This engine is unusual in having a single valve to control both
high and low pressure cylinders. I am fairly sure that the number of models
of this engine now exceeds the numbers of the original!
The lack of crowds was an advantage in that I was able to chat to many of
the engine owners, and get plenty of photographs.
By late in the afternoon, the sun plus a drying wind enabled some engines to
move around, and they started ploughing. I understand that by the Saturday,
everything was much better and the show was well attended.
Finally, and to return to that mud, on Sunday morning I had to wash my car.
It was either that, or plant a row of spuds in it!. The tenacity of that mud
is amazing. I reckon that Roger has missed a golden opportunity there. He
could easily market it as a gap-filling substitute for superglue!
Photos are at:
http://www.alanjstepney.free-online.co.uk/s1.html
alan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
www.alanstepney.info
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